4 Big Ways Millennials Are Impacting The Housing Market

Everyone dreams about what they’ll look for in a first home. Many Texans prefer city living, while others choose a multi-acre property on the outskirts of town. Some consider lavish spaces, and still others prefer a small house with minimalist furniture and design.

Home preferences can feel as distinct as our fingerprints, but the truth is that our housing preferences aren’t as different from one another as they might feel.

At the end of the day, housing trends exist, even to distinguish generation from generation. Many factors play into generational trends:

New ideas and technology

Economic booms or burdens

Community values

Celebrity preferences

Lifestyle needs

And much, much more

The Wall Street Journal collected a wealth of interviews and data about the recent increase of millennials entering the housing market. With the generation’s growing real estate interests, themes that mark millennial homes are taking shape:

1. Restored Confidence In The Housing Market

One of the most talked about generational real estate trends has been that of millennials’ general reluctance to buy homes. They bear the misfortune of having witnessed an infamous real estate collapse in a time when many might have considered purchasing their first house. The situation has distinguished millennials as a generation seemingly uninterested in buying properties at all.

This trend is shifting, however. Recent data shows that since 2015 a substantial increase of first-time homebuyers has arrived. 2017 is the first year in over a decade when first time home purchases outnumber new home renters.

While the quantity of houses purchased still do not mirror those of previous generations, a trend-ending number of millennials have recently settled into their first homes.

2. Houses That Improve Work-Life Balance

Millennials want to work for people and offices they admire and managers who treat them and their coworkers fairly. Bleak workplaces, low pay, and poor management is probably harder to get away with among millennials than in previous generations. Millennials in Central Texas have their sights set on jobs that work for them.

Corporate generosity and community involvement are now selling points in many job interviews because millennials have brought their philanthropic ideals into the workplace. Vocations are more valuable to them than mere jobs, and prioritizing a healthy work-life balance is perhaps more incentivized than ever.

This emphasis for job enjoyment, safety, and fairness has trickled into millennials’ preferences for housing as well. In the same way that they look for workplaces that treat them well, they also seek houses that optimize the time they spend away from the office.

In practice, this means that millennials tend to prefer living closer to work than having the extra square-footage that might be offered further from their jobs. If their daily commute can be shortened, millennials will gladly make due with less square footage.

3) First-Home Luxuries

In someone’s first year at college, a small, cheap dorm can feel like a dream suite because of the sudden independence it offers to incoming freshmen. After a few years of living on their own, however, most once-satisfied students in Texas graduate from college and to higher standards of living.

As the years go on, better pay affords better apartments. Since millennials have historically tended to purchase homes at a later age than their parents, the expectations they’ve developed as tenants in all-inclusive apartments across Central Texas shapes the quality of houses millennials expect in the real estate market.

This means that first-time homebuyers among millennials often look for fancier places to call home than previous generations.

4) Space For Renters

With housing costs still high, and first-time homebuyer loans occasionally hard to snag, millennials look for opportunities to secure extra cash in their pockets at the end of each month. Townhouses and homes with additional wings are now in high demand. First-time homebuyers seize the chance to rent out the spare space to cover or alleviate the burden of their mortgage.

The pro of an additional monthly income outweighs the con of sacrificing the privacy of living alone. It is a form of real estate that millennials increasingly purchase, which has sparked many trend-watching developers to invest their Texas construction efforts to satisfy the growing market for townhomes, duplexes, and multi-wing houses.

If you’re looking for a home, JB Goodwin has diverse properties in Austin, San Antonio, and many other beautiful parts of Central Texas. Speaking with the right agent can help you find the property that fits your lifestyle and your budget, so reach out today! We look forward to helping you and your family.